lemon confit
I quickly learned that there aren’t really any easy sandwiches in the ‘Wichcraft book. In fact, even the PBJ one requires an overnight soaking of the rhubarb to make jelly. The first thing I made from the book in preparation for my first sandwich was lemon confit. Confit is a French term which comes from a word meaning to preserve, which is done by immersing food in a liquid (usually oil). You may be familiar with duck confit, which is one of the greatest things ever!
To make the confit, I dropped three lemons into boiling water for 1 minute then washed them under running cold water and dried them. You do this to get rid of the waxy layer that might be present. The recipe calls for 12 lemons and makes 4 cups. I didn’t need nearly that much hence the reduction. Next, I finely minced a large shallot and 2 large cloves of garlic. I also made a mixture of kosher salt and sugar.
Then, I took my trust Japanese mandolin and made thin slices of lemon, but not before I cut off about 1/2 inch from the end which is all rind and no juice. The first couple of slices were too thin so I adjusted it so they would be a bit thicker. It was a challenge because I’d hate to bite into a thick piece of lemon in my sandwich but if you have it too thin, it does not hold its structure. Still, next time I would make them thicker.
I removed the seeds which sounds easier than it really was. Remember, the seeds are embedded in the fruit and with a sharp enough mandolin, they are now 1/16” thick. After I got out as much as I could, I took a small Tupperware container and put down a layer of lemons, making sure not to overlap them. Then I sprinkled on the shallot and salt mixtures. Then I put another layer of lemons down and repeated. I covered and put it in the fridge for three days. You are supposed to flip them halfway through but I forgot. Oops.
After 3 days, I removed them and drained them in a colander for 15 minutes. Then I put it into a repurposed jar and covered them with olive oil and labeled it.
Resources: Small lemons (Vons); Garlic and shallots (Trader Joe’s); Olive Oil (Costco); Maldon Sea Salt; Hiromoto Nikiri; Benriner Japanse Madoline Slicer.
To David Vo –
I made some Lemon Confit recently starting with a different method/recipe. I decided to split my ingredients and made half using the approach outlined on the ‘witchcraft trials’ page.
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From the info you posted, I was left with three questions.
1. In your posting you stated,
” I took a small Tupperware container and put down a layer of lemons, ***making sure not to overlap them.*** ”
but he picture of the slices in the plastic container you posted shows them overlapping every which way.
could you please clarify.
2. After the 3-5 day curing period, you removed lemon from the salt/sugar/garlic/shallot mixture (which by then was likely mostly liquid) and let it drain briefly. Do you wipe or rinse off any of the residue (salt, garlic) from the lemon slices ?
3. My limited understanding of using confit of lemon was that after curing of the whole fruit (rind & flesh) that when being used the flesh was cut away and only the rind/peel was used. Am I mistaken ? How do you use it ?
Thanks in advance for the courtesy of a reply. You can email me if you wish at : sstrippoli AT gmail DOT com
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s.
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1. Sorry for the mistake. Yes, I overlapped them.
2. I didn’t wipe or rinse off any of the residue. This didn’t seem to have any negative effects on taste.
3. I used it as whole lemon sliced in sandwiches. The salt breaks down the structure so much and if you sliced it thin enough, it wasn’t problem biting through it.
Good luck!